HIGHLAND >> A controversial residential development approved for the eastern side of Highland is headed to a ballot.

The Highland City Council has consented to putting the Harmony master planned community before voters in November 2018, reversing course on its approval of the project after opponents gathered enough verified signatures to force a recall or seek voter input.

“Now, we the people have spoken,” Highland resident John Meyer told the council at its meeting Tuesday. “You are our elected officials. I believe that you should be listening to what the people want.”

The San Bernardino County Registrar’s Office has since verified the 2,236 signatures needed for the petition to qualify for the ballot.

The group needed signatures from 10 percent of registered voters in Highland. The registrar’s office stopped its count once it hit 2,227 verified signatures, according to City Clerk Betty Hughes.

Rather than hold a special election or rescind the project’s approval altogether, the council agreed to seek voter input during the next gubernatorial election, Mayor Larry McCallon said Wednesday.

The project, led by Upland-based developer Lewis Group of Companies, would bring more than 3,600 homes, a fire station and elementary school to 1,656 acres of land north of Mill Creek, south and west of the San Bernardino National Forest and east of Greenspot Road.

“We support the decision of the council,” Randall Lewis, executive vice president of Lewis Group, said Thursday. “We think it will give an opportunity for the broadest number of Highland voters to weigh in on the project.”

The City Council approved the project in August after hearing from dozens of residents who voiced concerns about the project’s potential impact on the environment, traffic and schools. Opponents also site flood, fire and earthquake risks associated with the property as reasons the project should not go forward.

In September, the Center of Biological Diversity, the San Bernardino Audubon Society and the Greenspot Residents Association filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act and will have a significant impact on wildlife habitat, traffic and air pollution.

The same month, the Sierra Club, Crafton Hills Open Space Conservancy, Tri-County Conservation League and Friends of Riverside’s Hills filed a separate lawsuit against the city.

“We are not surprised, but remain disappointed that the City Council has chosen to push ahead with the plans despite clear public outcry and two concurrent lawsuits,” Wendy Rea, founder of the Greenspot Residents Association, said in an email Friday. “Redlands and surrounding residents need only to look a few miles up the canyon at the cost and safety issues in Forest Falls to understand why we should be concerned with this ill-conceived project on the banks of Mill Creek. It carries significant risks to public safety and the community as well as to the environment, and we will continue to pursue legal and public opposition to the project and well as educate the public on the far-reaching consequences.”

McCallon said placing the matter on the November 2018 ballot likely would not impact the project’s construction timeline.

“It was never envisioned construction would start for the next three, four or five years, anyway,” he said.